Washington was the first state in the nation to issue a community notification in February 1990 – six years before it became a nationwide practice.

Police say the last violent act of vigilantism against a sex offender registered in Seattle came in 1993. An offender in West Seattle had a death threat left on his car windshield and was later punched in the face by someone who rang his doorbell, assaulted him, then ran off. Police believe it was the same person.

That’s not to say vigilantism hasn’t happened in other places, or has happened in Seattle and hasn’t been reported.

In 2008, a Pierce County woman who used a baseball bat last year to beat a sex offender who she said was talking to her daughter in their trailer park was sentenced to three months in jail.